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MEMORANDUM 



ACCOMPANYING DRAWINGS OF A DESIGN 



SUBMITTED BY 



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MESSRS. E; 1. & J. P. SIMS, 



SECOND COMPETITION 



Centennial Exhibition Buildings. 



WITH 



PHOTOGRAPHIC COPIES OF THE SAME. 






H. B. Ashmead, Book and Job Printer, IIC2 and 1 104 Sansom St., Philadelphi 



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MEMORANDUM. 



In recasting our design for the proposed Centennial 
Buildings, we have thought it desirable to depart some- 
what from the scheme we laid before the Commissioners in 
the first competition. The changes we have made have 
been generally as follows : 

First. — Taking the Memorial Building out of the Ex- 
hibition, and in place of the great nave we before showed 
through the centre of the mass, erecting one capable of 
more simple and rapid construction, so that the whole of 
the Exhibition Building would be of a temporary character, 
although erected of non-combustible materials. 

Second. — Erecting the Memorial Building disconnected 
from the main Exhibition Building or even in another 
part of the Park, and by this arrangement facilitating the 
rapid construction of all the buildings. 

Each building could then have its own contractor and 
its separate gang of workmen. 

Third. — Reducing the size of the Memorial Building to 
about one-fifth that originally contemplated, so that the 
quality of the building may be improved in proportion as 
the size is diminished. 



OF THE EXHIBITION BUILDING. 

We have not thought it desirable to change the dual 
system of classification we presented in our former design, 
as we have not seen any other which, in our opinion, com- 
pares with it in simplicity, common sense and economy of 
cost. It can be more easily, rapidly, arid economically 
constructed than if curved lines on plan are used. It has 
been carefully arranged in the dimensions and construction 
of its parts to use only marketable iron, so that after the 
Exhibition is over it may be readily sold and without sac- 
rifice. This applies as well to the arched central avenue as 
to the " spinning shed" roofs of the wings. In our first 
design the Central Avenue was ioo feet wide and 150 feet 
high, with galleries on either side 30 feet wide, each. In 
our present design, the arched roof is 1 20 feet wide and 1 20 
high, but without galleries. At each end it takes the form 
of a pavilion roof 120 feet square. We have repeated 
upon our new floor plan the suggested geographical arrange- 
ment which formed part of our first design. At both ends 
of the Central Avenue, and outside of the wall of the Ex- 
hibition, we have added blocks of buildings to contain, on 
one side of the Entrance Hall, on the ground floor, a large 
Dining Room, Restaurant, four Private Dining Rooms, 
and a commodious Ladies' Retiring Room, etc., Kitchen, 
Scullery and Serving Room, a large dumb-waiter and a 
servants' serving stairs, with servants' W. C. under. And 
we have provided a large stairway starting from the En- 
trance Hall to similar rooms above. Under the stairways 
are provided Telegraph Offices. The two buildings cor- 



5 

responding to those just described, are to contain Com- 
mittee Rooms and Jury Rooms, and also a Gentlemen's 
Retiring Room. 

Newspaper offices are provided under the large stair- 
ways. 

To each side of the building we have added a machinery 
annexe, giving a total space of 80 feet by 1840 feet. 

By this arrangement we save one wall and get the whole 
in one contract, thus materially decreasing the expense. 

Boiler Houses are provided, and six buildings for Res- 
taurants on both sides, which Restaurants are intended to 
be carried on by different nations. In addition, each build- 
ing contains Ladies and Gentlemen's Retiring Rooms, two 
Kitchens and Serving Rooms, a Private Stairway and 
Entrance leading to Committee Rooms above, which are 
intended for the Committees of the countries whose ex- 
hibiting portions are contiguous. 

OF THE MEMORIAL BUILDING. 

The original instructions of the Commissioners that the 
Memorial Building should not exceed five acres in floor space, 
we have interpreted not to specify that it should be five acres. 
We have therefore reduced it to about one acre, or, in other 
words, to such a size that a thoroughly permanent and sub- 
stantial building can be erected for about the sum of money 
understood to be set apart for it, to wit : one million and 
a half of dollars. A building of five acres in extent erected 
for the sum above named, must necessarily be of a flimsy 
character — one that would be in ruins before the year 1900. 



We cannot think that a building of this kind is the proper 
one to erect as a monument of a great national fact, but 
rather that it should be of such materials that it shall exist 
for a thousand years. Five acres of building for a million 
and a half of money, at our present prices of labor and 
materials, leaves an architect no choice but to use stucco, 
galvanized iron and such other perishable materials, or else 
to erect a plain and barn-like structure. In this climate 
stucco is very unenduring, and the age of galvanized iron 
is fixed as a certainty at six years. No manufacturer of the 
article will guarantee it in an exposed position for a longer 
time. All schemes for erecting a Memorial Building 
covering five acres, and to cost about a million and a half 
of dollars, necessitate the extensive use of these perishable 
materials. Would it be a creditable thing for the nation 
to erect a memorial of the centenary of our nationality of 
a character that would be so far decayed at the expiration 
of ten years, that it would be a positive eye-sore, and that 
the Commissioners of Fairmount Park would pray for its 
removal as detrimental to the appearances of their domain ? 
Viewing the matter in this light, we have reduced the size 
of our Memorial Building, so that stone and brick of the 
best quality, and the best materials only, can be used. 
We would construct it entirely of American materials, 
and would endeavor to show in it what the best materials 
and labor of our day and country are, so that in 1976, 
when another similar building or monument may be erected, 
this one can be compared with it, to show how much a 
hundred years has been able to do in the discovery of 



materials and modes of construction, and in the education 
of labor. 

It may be erected in close proximity to the Exhibition 
Building, and in the general view would group very well 
with it, but we would suggest that it would be much better 
to erect it on George's Hill, the highest point in the Park, 
and over one hundred feet higher than the Exhibition 
grounds. We understand that the Commissioners of the 
Park have been consulted on the subject, and will consent 
to it. This building would be acoustically good, and 
would prove useful as a place for holding meetings, as sug- 
gested by the Committee. It could also be used, and 
would be appropriate, as a National Museum and as a kind 
of Mausoleum, and could contain monuments, statues, 
tablets, and stained glass, to the memory of great men of 
America, and frescoes of great events in our history. 

OF THE ART GALLERY. 



The design which we now submit for the Art Gallery 
is based upon the same principles of arrangement which 
governed us in the preparation of our former design. As 
before, we have endeavored to combine in the scheme use- 
fulness and convenience of plan, strength and thoroughly 
fire proof qualities, the most approved form of lighting, 
modelled after the successful galleries of the South Ken- 
sington Museum, and an exterior which, although severe 
in its general treatment, will be effective when viewed as a 
whole, and which, by its parts, unmistakably suggests an 



Art Gallery. That the building should show the use it is 
intended to be put to, is no mean desideratum. 

The galleries are twenty in number, sixteen of them 22 
feet by 90 feet, and four of them 33 feet by 92 feet. 

Attention is especially called to the vistas through the 
galleries, nave and transepts. 

With regard to the placing of the articles to be exhibited, 
and the fuller description of the lighting, the drainage, etc., 
we beg leave to call your attention to the description ac- 
companying our first design, a copy of which is hereto an- 
nexed. 

In conclusion, we desire to say that as the second paper 
of instructions addressed to the authors of the ten premi- 
ated designs, says, that the regulations of the first competi- 
tion are still in force with regard to all details, we have 
followed the regulations, although unwillingly, as we would 
have preferred to use color on our drawings. 

H. A. & J. P. SIMS, 

Architects. 
30TH September, 1873, 

426 Walnut Street. 







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Deacidified using the Bookkeeper process. 
Neutralizing agent: Magnesium Oxide 
Treatment Date: Oct. 2003 

PreservationTechnoIogies 

A WORLD LEADER IN PAPER PRESERVATION 

1 1.1 Thomson Park Drive 
Cranberry Township, PA 16066 
(724) 779-21 1 1 



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